MQW tuned semiconductor lasers with uniform frequency response

A tunable semiconductor laser with an intrinsically wideband uniform frequency response has been developed, using the quantum confined Stark effect in quantum well material as the tuning mechanism. A frequency response uniform within 3 dB from 20 kHz to 1.2 GHz was achieved, limited by the measuring system at low frequencies and by device capacitance at high frequencies. Analysis shows that with optimised tuning elements an uniform frequency response to over 50 GHz should be achievable with this technique

Increased amplifier spacing in a soliton system using quantum well saturable absorbers and spectral filtering

The spacing between optical amplifiers in a long-haul soliton system may be increased to 100 km by using only passive quantum-well saturable absorbers and narrow-band filters for soliton control. After transmission over 9000 km at 10 Gbits/s, the effects of soliton-soliton interaction and Gordon-Haus jitter in the proposed system yield bit error rates of better than 10-9

Quantum well devices for mode-locking fibre lasers

The generation of picosecond duration pulses in the 1.55 micron wavelength region is of considerable interest for applications related to telecommunications. In the 1.06 micron region, picosecond pulses are useful for spectroscopy and the electro-optic sampling of high speed integrated circuits [I]. Passive mode-locking of fibre lasers using multiple quantum well (MQW) material can provide optical pulses with picosecond durations in both these wavelength regions. The optical confinement and long lengths available, give doped fibre lasers high gain together with flexibility in physical configuration. The use of QWs with light incident perpendicular to the epitaxial layers, as passive saturable absorbers to mode-lock these lasers, is attractive because of their polarisation insensitivity and the wide range of wavelengths available. The semiconductor sample operating wavelength is governed by the materials, their compositions and dimensions used. In fibre, gain is provided in the 1.55 micron region by doping with Erbium whilst Neodymium is used for operation in the 1.06 micron region. By integrating the saturable absorber and laser-cavity end mirror into a single semiconductor device we have generated picosecond pulses in very simple cavity configurations

Low noise amplication of an optically carried microwave signal: application to atom interferometry

In this paper, we report a new scheme to amplify a microwave signal carried on a laser light at $\lambda$=852nm. The amplification is done via a semiconductor tapered amplifier and this scheme is used to drive stimulated Raman transitions in an atom interferometer. Sideband generation in the amplifier, due to self-phase and amplitude modulation, is investigated and characterized. We also demonstrate that the amplifier does not induce any significant phase-noise on the beating signal. Finally, the degradation of the performances of the interferometer due to the amplification process is shown to be negligible

Optoelectronic Oscillators for Communication Systems

International audienceWe introduce and report recent developments on a novel five port optoelectronic voltage controlled oscillator consisting of a resonant tunneling diode (RTD) optical-waveguide integrated with a laser diode. The RTD-based optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) has both optical and electrical input and output ports, with the fifth port allowing voltage control. The RTD-OEO locks to reference radio-frequency (RF) sources by either optical or electrical injection locking techniques allowing remote synchronization, eliminating the need of impedance matching between traditional RF oscillators. RTD-OEO functions include generation, amplification and distribution of RF carriers, clock recovery, carrier recovery, modulation and demodulation and frequency synthesis. Self-injection locking operation modes, where small portions of the output electrical/optical signals are fed back into the electrical/optical input ports, are also proposed. The self-phase locked loop configuration can give rise to low-noise high-stable oscillations, not limited by the RF source performance and with no need of external optoelectronic conversion

High-performance Phase Locking Of Wide Line Width Semiconductor Lasers By Combined Use Of Optical Injection Locking And Optical Phase-lock Loop

The requirement for narrow linewidth lasers or short-loop propagation delay makes the realization of optical phase-lock loops using semiconductor lasers difficult. Although optical injection locking can provide low phase error variance for wide linewidth lasers, the locking range is restricted by stability considerations. Theoretical and experimental results for a system which combines both techniques so as to overcome these limitations, the optical injection phase-lock loop (OIPLL), are reported. Phase error variance values as low as 0.006 rad 2 (500 MHz bandwidth) and locking ranges exceeding 26 GHz were achieved in homodyne OIPLL systems using DFB lasers of summed linewidth 36 MHz, loop propagation delay of 15 ns and injection ratio less than -30 dB. Phase error variance values as low as 0.003 rad 2 in a bandwidth of 100 MHz, a mean time to cycle slip of 3 × 10 10 s and SSB noise density of -94 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset were obtained for the same lasers in an heterodyne OIPLL configuration with loop propagation delay of 20 ns and injection ratio of -30 dB.172328342Kahn, J.M., L Ghit/s PSK homodyne transmission system using phase-locked semiconductor lasers (1989) IEEK Photon. Electron. Lett., 1, pp. 340-342. , OctKazovsky, L.G., Atlas, D.A., A 1320-nm experimental optical phase-locked loop: Performance investigation and PSK homodyne experiments at 140 Mb/s and 2 Gb/s (1990) J. Lightwave Technol., 8, pp. 1415-1425. , SeptRamos, R.T., Seeds, A.J., Fast heterodyne optical phase-lock loop using double quantum well laser diodes (1992) Electron. Lett., 28 (1), pp. 82-83Bordonalli, A.C., Cai, B., Seeds, A.J., Williams, P.J., Generation of microwave signals by active mode locking in a gain bandwidth restricted laser structure (1996) IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 8, pp. 151-153. , JanWendt, K.R., Fredendall, G.L., Automatic frequency and phase control of synchronization in television receivers (1943) Proc. IRE, 31, pp. 7-15Peter, M., Strandberg, M.W.P., Phase stabilization of microwave oscillators (1955) Proc. IRE, (43), pp. 869-873Bykovskii, Y.A., Use of a Fabry-Perot resonator for the stabilization of the frequency of an injection laser (1970) Sov. Phys. - Semiconductors, 4, pp. 580-583Yamaguchi, S., Suzuki, M., Frequency stabilization of a diode laser by use of the optogalvanic effect (1982) Appl. Phys. Lett., 11, pp. 597-598Gliese, U., Nielsen, N.T., Bruun, M., Christensen, E.L., Stubkjaer, K.E., Lindgren, S., Broberg, B., A wideband heterodyne optical phase-locked loop for generation of 3-18 GHz microwave carriers (1992) IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 4, pp. 936-938. , AugKobayashi, S., Kimura, T., Coherence of injection phase-locked AlGaAs semiconductor laser (1980) Electron. Lett., 16 (7), pp. 668-670Hui, R., Mecozzi, A., D'Ottavi, A., Spanno, P., Injection locking in distributed feedback semiconductor lasers (1991) IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 27, pp. 1688-1695. , JuneLidoyne, O., Gallion, P., Chabran, C., Debarge, G., Locking range, phase noise and power spectrum of an injection-locked semiconductor laser (1990) Inst. Elec. Eng. Proc., 137 (3 PART J), pp. 147-154Bordonalli, A.C., Seeds, A.J., Ramos, R.T., Low phase noise optical phase-lock loops using combined injection locking and phase locking (1994) Inst. Elec. Eng. Colloquium on Microwave Opto-Electronics, pp. 61-65. , London, U.K., Dig. 1994/022Ramos, R.T., Gallion, P., Erasme, D., Seeds, A.J., Bordonalli, A.C., Optical injection locking and phase-lock loop combined systems (1994) Opt. Lett., 19 (1), pp. 4-6Bordonalli, A.C., Walton, C., Seeds, A.J., High performance homodyne optical injection phase-lock loop using wide linewidth semiconductor lasers (1996) IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 8 (9), pp. 1217-1219Hodgkinson, T.G., Phase-locked-loop analysis for pilot carrier coherent optical receivers (1985) Electron. Lett., 21 (25-26), pp. 1202-1203Kazovsky, L.G., Performance analysis and linewidth requirements for optical PSK heterodyne communication systems (1986) J. Lightwave Technol., LT-4, pp. 415-425. , AprOhtsu, M., (1992) Highly Coherent Semiconductor Lasers, 1st Ed., , Boston, MA: Artech HouseGardner, F.M., (1979) Phaselock Techniques, 2nd Ed., , New York: WileyAgrawal, G.P., Dutta, N.K., (1993) Semiconductor Lasers, 2nd Ed., , New York: Van Nostrand ReinholdCai, B., Wake, D., Seeds, A.J., Microwave frequency synthesis using injection locked laser comb line selection (1995) Proc. LEOS Summer Topical Meetings, pp. 13-14. , Keystone, Digest no. 95TH8031, Paper WD2Lidoyne, O., Gallion, P., Erasme, D., Analysis of a homodyne receiver using injection-locked semiconductor laser (1991) J. Lightwave Technol., 9, pp. 659-665. , MayRamos, R.T., Seeds, A.J., Delay, linewidth and bandwidth limitations in optical phase-locked loops (1990) Electron. Lett., 26 (6), pp. 389-391Walton, C., Bordonalli, A.C., Seeds, A.J., High performance heterodyne optical injection phase-lock loop using wide linewidth semiconductor lasers (1998) IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 10, pp. 427-429. , Ma

8b10b line coding of PSK signals for effective homodyne coherent detection

We demonstrate effective homodyne optical phase locking to a phase-shift-keying (PSK) signal with residual carrier by exploiting 8b10b coding. Low-penalty transmission over 215 km of installed dispersion-compensated single-mode fibre is demonstrated

High-performance Heterodyne Optical Injection Phase-lock Loop Using Wide Linewidth Semiconductor Lasers

The requirements for narrow linewidth lasers or short-loop propagation delay limit optical phase-lock loop realizability with semiconductor lasers. Although optical injection locking can provide low-phase-error variance, its locking range is limited by stability considerations. The first experimental results for an heterodyne optical injection phase-lock loop are reported. Phase-error variance as low as 0.003 rad 2 in a bandwidth of 100 MHz, single-sideband (SSB) noise density of -94 dBc/Hz at 10-kHz offset and mean time to cycle slip of 3 × 10 10 s have been achieved using DFB lasers of 36-MHz summed linewidth, a loop propagation delay of 20 ns and an injection ratio of -30 dB.103427429Kazovsky, L.G., Balanced phase-locked loops for homodyne receivers (1986) J. Lightwave Technol, LT-4, pp. 182-195Lidoyne, O., Gallion, P., Erasme, D., Analysis of a homodyne receiver using an injection-locked semiconductor laser (1991) J. Lightwave Technol., 9, pp. 659-665. , MayRamos, R.T., Seeds, A.J., Fast heterodyne optical phase-lock loop using double quantum well laser diodes (1992) Electron. Lett., 28 (1), pp. 82-83Gliese, U., Nielsen, T.N., Bruun, M., Christensen, E.L., Stubkjaer, K.E., Lindgren, S., Broberg, B., A wideband heterodyne optical phase-locked loop for generation of 3-18 GHz microwave carriers (1992) IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 4, pp. 936-938. , AugGoldberg, L., Taylor, H.F., Weller, J.F., Bloom, D.M., Microwave signal generation with injection-locked laser diodes (1983) Electron. Lett., 19 (13), pp. 491-493Ramos, R.T., Seeds, A.J., Delay, linewidth and bandwidth limitations in optical phase-locked loop design (1990) Electron. Lett., 26 (6), pp. 389-391Lidoyne, O., Gallion, P., Chabran, C., Debarge, G., Locking range, phase noise and power spectrum of an injection-locking semiconductor laser (1990) Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., 137 (3 PART J), pp. 147-154Bordonalli, A.C., Walton, C., Seeds, A.J., High-performance homodyne optical injection phase-lock loop using wide linewidth semiconductor lasers (1996) IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 8, pp. 1217-1219. , SeptGardner, F.M., (1979) Phaselock Techniques, , New York: WileyRamos, R.T., Gallion, P., Erasme, D., Seeds, A.J., Bordonalli, A.C., Optical injection locking and phase-lock loop combined systems (1994) Opt. Lett., 19 (1), pp. 4-6Hui, R., D'Ottavi, A., Mecozzi, A., Spano, P., Injection locking in distributed feedback semiconductor lasers (1991) IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 27, pp. 1688-1695. , Jun